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Well, welcome all of you, my family, my Madlik family, to the Madlik Podcast this year.

It’s a Wednesday after Yom Kippur 2023.

And this is the Yom Kippur Sermon that I wanted to hear.

So, what is Kol Nidre?

It’s a legal formula that really belongs for the afternoon before Yom Kippur.

And similar to the Seder, where at the beginning of every Haggadah, there was a legal formula getting rid of all the Hametz, the leaven, that we need in order to begin the Seder.

So, too, I believe, on Yom Kippur, we have Kol Nidre, a legal formula that gets rid of all of our vows that enables us to begin the Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year, the Shabbat Shabbaton.

And many people focus on the beautiful tune, the heart-wrenching tune that is universally sung, and that’s the importance of this legal formula.

Many people try to get around the fact that this is a legal formula that talks about getting rid of our vows.

But the word for a vow is a neder.

And neder also can mean the normal, the regular, the thing that we are used to.

There is a Talmudic saying that says, Tadir v’she’enu tadir tadir kodim.

תָּדִיר וְשֶׁאֵינוֹ תָּדִיר — תָּדִיר קוֹדֵם

That which you do on a regular basis takes precedent over the exception.

And of course, Judaism, like any religion, is based on consistency, normalcy.

Faith is based on believing in something that never changes.

That’s what our anchor is when we believe.

There’s regularity, there’s commitment, there’s allegiance.

And so I would like to think that the oaths that are referred to in the Kol Nidre formula really refer to that aspect of our lives, the regular, the normal, the anticipated, that we use to anchor our life.

And Judaism, as I said before, like every other religion, normally gives great precedence and preference to the normal.

Not only do you make a blessing first on your Talit, which you wear seven days a week, before you put on your Tefillin, which you only wear six days a week.

Not only do you cite a blessing for something that you do on a regular basis before the special blessing for a holiday, but there’s a beautiful custom that we all do every Friday night that we might not even be aware of.

One of the reasons we are told that we cover the challah is because according to the rules of Tadir ve’enotadir todir kodim, that we give precedence to that which is regular, that which is normal, we should actually begin every Friday night with the blessing over the challah.

Because we bless the bread, we break bread at the blessing of God every day of the week, but we only make a kiddush one day a week.

So what are we instructed to do?

We cover the challah so as not to embarrass the challah.

שמדין סדר הקדימות בברכות יש לברך קודם על הלחם ואחר כך על היין, אך בשל האיסור לאכול לפני ה”קידוש”, צריכים לקדש קודם, ולכן מכסים את החלות עם כיסוי חלה כדי ש’לא יראה הפת בשתו‘[5]. או שעל ידי הכיסוי זה נחשב שהן אינן נמצאות על השולחן.

רבי ישראל מסלנט פעם התארח אצל משפחה לסעודת ליל שבת. בעלת הבית שכחה לכסות את החלות ובעל הבית גער בה. אמר לו רבי ישראל מסלנט, למה מכסים את החלות? אמר לו אותו אחד, שהפת לא תתבייש מהיין. אמר לו רבי ישראל, וכי לפת יש רגשות? הסיבה היא, להרגיל אותנו על כל צעד ושעל לא לגרום בושה לאף אחד, ובמיוחד לא לקרובינו.

And that too is part of normalcy.

We try not to shake the boat.

We try not to create waves.

We don’t want to say anything that might upset somebody.

We want to just glide, keep with the status quo.

And that too is part of our daily life.

And the truth is that we say a psalm, starting from Rosh Chodesh Elul, which is the month before Rosh Hashanah, and we say it all the way until Hoshanah Rabah, which, as I said in the beginning, is actually the day when the gates of repentance actually do close, the last day of Sukkot.

And it’s Psalm 27.

And in it, one of the most iconic lines is, Ahat shealti me’et Hashem oto avakesh, shefti beveit Hashem kol yemei chayai.

One thing I ask of the Lord, only that do I seek, to sit, to sit happily, comfortably in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.

And this too, this is what we want.

We want to be comfortable with our God.

We want to be comfortable with our beliefs.

There are traditions that say that you should be koveya makom le tefilato in Baruchot 6b.

קּוֹבֵעַ מָקוֹם לִתְפִלָּתוֹ

It says you should find a seat in the synagogue that is your seat.

And if you go to that seat every time you enter the synagogue, you’re not going to be distracted.

You’re not going to have to get acclimated.

You will be acclimated.

That kviut, that normalcy, that regularity, that is the epitome of what we are looking for.

But, but, …. there’s another thread.

There’s another tradition in our tradition.

And in Pirkei Avot, it says, do not make your prayer something automatic.

Al ta’aset filat ha’kava.

אַל תַּעַשׂ תְּפִלָּתְךָ קֶבַע

While we are told on the one hand that we look for that normalcy, that we look for that regularity, we are also told God forbid that one prayer that you say will be identical to the last prayer that you say.

You have to innovate.

You have to find the meaning of the moment.

And actually, if we go back to the Psalm 27, that we say, starting in Elul, and going all the way to Hoshana Raba, we need to lead and read a little bit further.

Because after it says, one thing I ask is to sit in the House of God all the days of my life.

It also says, lachzot benoam Hashem u’levaker behechaloh.

I want to gaze upon the glory of God, and I want to visit in his hechal, in his temple, in his maybe tabernacle, maybe in his tent.

And then it goes further, and it says, he will shelter me in his pavilion on an evil day.

Ki yitzpeneni b’sukah biyom ra.

So, in a sense, the rabbis were brilliant in picking this psalm.

Because in this one psalm, in these one verses that are told to us as one thing, I ask from God, like everything else in Judaism, that one is actually many.

And what that one thing is, yes, I want that consistency, yes, I want that regularity, but I also have to be aware of making my prayer keva, of making my religion and my faith regular, normal, predictable.

Because in fact, I have to be a visitor.

Every time I come to that temple, to that tabernacle has actually to be like the first time.

And that tabernacle and that temple, God forbid, it should be built from brick and mortar, and not have the temporary fleeting nature of the passing cloud and the wilting flower and the sukkah that is falling.

So we say on Sukkot, the harachaman who yakim lanu et sukkat david hanafelet, we say may the merciful one raise for us the fallen tabernacle of David.

We actually refer to the sukkah not as a standard, as a permanent edifice, but at something that is constantly falling, something so delicate that without our faith, without our support, we could lose it in the fleeting blink of an eye and the living breath that we breathe.

So in fact, what I believe Kol Nidre is all about is actually to make that transition on Yom Kippur, the most cataclysmic holy day of the year, from that which is predictable, that which is normal, that which we are feeling very comfortable… to throw that all out in a way identical to the way we purge ourselves of the leaven before Passover in order to make the Exodus.

The journey that we need to make on Yom Kippur is similar one of getting rid of those institutions, those dogmas, those anchored beliefs that we never question, and to throw them out and to become a vaker behechaloh, a visitor in God’s holy temple.

And this year, I heard at least two sermons from rabbis who felt compelled as they should have to make a parallel or to make a reference to what in Israel is actually the most important meaning of Yom Kippur.

Most Israelis, when they think of Yom Kippur, they don’t think of an ancient ritual.

They think of a war.

They think of the Yom Kippur War that occurred 50 years ago.

And if you watched Israeli TV for the days preceding Yom Kippur, that was all over the media.

That was what was being remembered.

And I would like to think that unlike the sermons that I heard that tried to draw a distinction between the existential threat that was caused by the Yom Kippur War and the current situation in Israel where you have people demonstrating for the soul of the country, the sermons that I heard, most of them, and I only have two, so it’s not statistically significant.

But many of them were saying, I know what a threat is.

I know what an existential threat is.

And what we are having today is just a hiccup.

That today we live in the most glorious, blessed moment in our history.

We have a state, we have seen threats from the outside, and this is not it.

And I think they are making a drastic mistake.

And I think that they are missing the whole message of Yom Kippur.

Because what Yom Kippur says is that every Yom Kippur is a moment of crisis, and dare we not see that crisis and learn the lessons.

When I was in Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza a few days before Yom Kippur (protesting Netaniahu’s visit to the UN), I was reminded of my youth.

The last time that I was at a protest in Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza protesting a regime that was overbearing and taking away the rights of Jews was the Soviet Jewry Movement.

And all Jews got together in solidarity with the Jews of the Soviet Union.

And what is not so well known is that at the beginning of the Soviet Jewry Movement, this was not something in terms of demonstrating against the Soviet Union that was accepted, that was supported by institutional Judaism, by UJA, Federation, even by the State of Israel.

The early founders of the Soviet Jewry Movement were rebels.

They were outcasts, people like Jacob Birnbaum, Rabbi Avi Weiss, Glenn Richter, Shlomo Riskin.

And yes, even a radical named Meir Kahana, who is not one of my favorites.

But the point was that they were saying that we’ve seen this movie before, where a Jewry would stand up and say, as they did during the Holocaust, this too shall pass.

We don’t need to rock the boat.

We need to cover the challah and make sure that everything is just the way it is.

And be thankful for where we are.

And ultimately, the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry (SSSJ), young people, demonstrators, moved all of world Jewry to unite, to unite behind something that really touched and retained and discovered and preserved the soul of the Jewish people.

And as I was at that demonstration at Dag Hammarskjöld, I felt the same thing.

There were, I would say, predominantly Israelis there.

Very few American rabbis, Rabbi Cosgrove from Park Avenue Synagogue was there.

But most rabbis are afraid of rocking the boat.

And what they don’t understand is to support the population of Israel.

And by some counts, seven million Israelis over the last six months have demonstrated in 4,000 different locations.

They are an inspiration to Hungarians, Polish, Turks, who demonstrated for democracy for a week, for a month, maybe for half a year.

This is the most sustained demonstration of people, citizens for liberal democracy.

It is a light unto the nation, those of us who cannot show solidarity with the demonstrators, just for the very fact that they are taking their future into their old hands, that they are willing to shake up the status quo and demand their own rights.

We are missing the boat.

We are not listening to the call of Kol Nidre.

So I felt myself at Dag Hammarskjöld very much like I did as a 17-year-old, when I demonstrated with my parents against the Soviet Union.

And when I started surveying sermons that were given on Yom Kippur, that inevitably brought up the Yom Kippur War, but did not connect to the dots, or if they did connect the dots, it was by way of saying, this is different, this is not an existential threat.

The woman who is the de facto head of the protest movement, and the truth is it doesn’t have a head, it is a people’s movement.

There were those that say, oh, we should visit and talk to the opposition parties in the Knesset.

This is more than the Knesset.

This is the population of Israel that is seeing what can happen if we continue in the way we are.

But the woman named Dr Shikma Bressler, who is a physicist with access to the particle collider in Switzerland, she’s a Weizmann Institute professor, she actually did connect the dots to the Yom Kippur War.

And the connection that she made, she said, we will never bury our heads in the sand again.

The Yom Kippur War was a tragedy not only because we were attacked, but because we knew we were going to be attacked.

There are stories of mothers, grandmothers who came to visit their children who were stationed at the Suez Canal a few weeks before the war.

And they said, what are all those troops doing on the other side?

And they were told, oh, our generals tell us it’s just an Egyptian military exercise.

There were warnings.

There was, as Shikma Bressler said, there were writings on the wall.

And so, she said that this time we will not ignore the writing on the wall.

That is the real connection to the Yom Kippur War.

That we need to see what is at stake here.

And we need to stand in solidarity with the people of Israel.

We are heading into the holiday of Sukkot.

And as I said, the bumper sticker of the holiday of Sukkot is of a sukkah that can fall at any moment.

And that in fact is the epitome, the end game of what Yom Kippur is all about.

That we need to know that we cannot just live in normalcy as individuals or as people of this earth or as members of the Jewish people.

Because what we have is like a sukkah ha-no-fe-let.

It is like a sukkah that can fall at any time.

And I have recently, we’ve talked about it on Madlik, when we listened to Daniel Gordis and Yossi Klein Halevi, who said, yes, they understand how world Jewry takes a back seat to the people of Israel who serve in the army and the democratically elected government of Israel.

But I would argue that on Yom Kippur, both the day, but also 50 years after the war, and also this Yom Kippur, that we are struggling, I would say, with an existential threat from within, we do need to realize that what we have is hanging by a thread, that it is a sukkah ha-no-felit, and that we Jews have been out of Israel more than we have ever been in it.

We Jews have lost the homeland more than we have been in it.

If you watch the movie on Golda Meir, there is a line that Moshe Dayan, who is despondent, possibly responsible for the hubris and the belief in normalcy that led to the Yom Kippur War.

And what he says is, this is Horban Bayet Shlishi….the destruction of the Third Temple…

The secular Jew Moshe Dayan understood that the third temple is actually the state of Israel.

It’s not a place that is on a hill in Jerusalem.

It is the whole state of Israel.

It is the heart and the soul of the Jewish people.

And when it is threatened, it is a Horban Bayet Shlishi, a destruction, potential destruction of the third temple.

And we have seen that movie.

And the movie that we have seen is that that was caused not by external enemies, but it was caused by Kinayim and Zealots, who had ulterior motives, nihilistic motives, I would argue, otherwise known as Messianism.

And they could care less whether they shattered and broke a few eggs and brought destruction.

And that is ultimately what we are up against on this Yom Kippur.

But it’s not all bad news.

There is good news as well.

I have heard political thinkers, talking heads, talk about this 75 years after the founding of the state of Israel is actually our constitutional Congress.

We have deferred the discussion that we are having until today.

And from that perspective, it is a Rosh Hashanah.

It is a new year.

It is a time for all of us to embrace the arguments, discussions, that you would have in a constitutional Congress.

We need to figure out now, and if not now when, who we are, what we want, and what is at stake.

I have heard other thinkers talk in terms of this moment is one where all of us are exposed to an insight into how do we go from here.

What does it mean to have an occupation?

What does it mean to let Messianists wag the tail of the dog?

And those thinkers have used an analogy that this is a little bit of, it’s a virus, and we are getting the vaccine.

And we have an opportunity to see, it’s not about judicial reform.

The judicial reform gives us an insight into where this is going.

So, my blessing for all of us is that we actually do learn the lesson of the Yom Kippur War.

And it’s not a lesson that the Yom Kippur War is any different than the moment that we live in now.

Every Yom Kippur, but especially this Yom Kippur, is a time for us to break the normalcy and to realize how precious and how those things, like democracy and like our faith that we have in prophetic Judaism, hangs by a thread.

And if those of us who hear the sound of Kol Nidre, of the shofar, do not stand up in solidarity with each other, then we can lose it all and the sukkah can fall.

So I wish all of us Shana Tova, a Hatima Tova that we will have after we sit in that sukkah hanofelet, that fragile, precious, temporary sukkah, and come together all under the sukkah Shalom, that roof that lets us have a glimpse of the stars.

But we understand it is our harvest to harvest.

It is our future to make.

Shana Tova, Hu Me Tuka.

2.

The Messianic Idea in Judaism by Gershom Scholem 1971 pp 10 -17.

Apocalyptic Jewish Messianism

The elements of the catastrophic and the visions of doom are present in peculiar fashion in the Messianic vision. On the one hand, they are applied to the transition or destruction in which the Messianic redemption is born—hence the ascription of the Jewish concept of “birth pangs of the Messiah”  חבלו של משיח to this period. But, on the other hand, it is also applied to the terrors of the Last Judgment which in many of these descriptions concludes the Messianic period instead of accompanying its beginnings….

This catastrophic character of the redemption, which is essential to the apocalyptic conception, is pictured in all of these texts and traditions in glaring images. It finds manifold expression: in world wars and revolutions, in epidemics, famine, and economic catastrophe; but to an equal degree in apostasy and the desecration of God’s name,…

The pages of the Talmud tractate Sanhedrin which deal with the Messianic age are full of most extravagant formulations of this kind. They drive toward the point that the Messiah will come only in an age which is either totally pure or totally guilty and corrupt.

Little wonder that in one such context the Talmud cites the bald statement of three famous teachers the third and fourth centuries: “May he come, but I do not want to see him.” Sanhedrin 98b.

Attempts to eliminate apocalypticism completely from the realm of rabbinic Judaism have not been lacking since the Middle Ages…

this denial of apocalypticism set out to suppress exceedingly vital elements in the realm of Judaism, elements filled with historical dynamism even if they combined destructive with constructive forces.

Apocalyptic thinking always contains the elements of dread and consolation intertwined. The dread and peril of the End form an element of shock and of the shocking which induces extravagance. The terrors of the real historical experiences of the Jewish people are joined with images drawn from the heritage of myth or mythical fantasy. This is expressed with particular forcefulness in the concept of the birth pangs of the Messiah which in this case means the Messianic age. The paradoxical nature of this conception exists in the fact that the redemption which is born here is in no causal sense a result of previous history. It is precisely the lack of transition between history and the redemption which is always stressed by the prophets and apocalyptists. The Bible and the apocalyptic writers know of no progress in history leading to the redemption. The redemption is not the product of immanent developments such as we find it in modern Western reinterpretations of Messianism since the Enlightenment where, secularized as the belief in progress, Messianism still displayed unbroken and immense vigor. It is rather transcendence breaking in upon history, an intrusion in which history itself perishes, transformed in its ruin because it is struck by a beam of light shining into it from an outside source. The constructions of history in which the apocalyptists (as opposed to the prophets of the Bible) revel have nothing to do with modern conceptions of development or progress, and if there is anything which, in the view of directed to what history will bring forth, but to that which will arise in its ruin, free at last and undisguised.

3.

Wikipedia

Appeasement in a political context is a diplomatic policy of making political or material concessions to an enemy power in order to avoid conflict.[1]

The term is most often applied to the foreign policy of the British Prime Ministers Ramsay Macdonald, Stanley Baldwinand Neville Chamberlain towards Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy[2] between 1935 and 1939.

Their policies have been the subject of intense debate for more than seventy years among academics, politicians and diplomats. The historians’ assessments have ranged from condemnation for allowing Adolf Hitler‘s Germany to grow too strong, to the judgment that they had no alternative and acted in their country’s best interests. At the time, these concessions were widely seen as positive, and the Munich Pact concluded on 30 September 1938 among Germany, Britain, France, and Italy prompted Chamberlain to announce that he had secured “peace for our time.”[3]

The setting is Jerusalem, approximately in the year 70 C.E.; the city is in the grip of a terrible famine, and it is surrounded by powerful Roman legions, under the command of Vespasian.

“Abba Sikra, the head of the ‘Biryonim,’ the extremist Jewish militants, was the brother-in-law of Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai. Ben Zakkai sent a message to Abba Sikra, ‘Come to me in secret.’ The latter came. Rabban Yochanan spoke, ‘How long are you going to continue to destroy the world by famine?’ He answered, ‘What can I do? The situation is out of my control. If I say anything opposing the ideas of my “comrades,” they will kill me.’ ”

“Rabban Yochanan told his brother-in-law to devise a plan which would be most likely to enable ben Zakkai to leave the city, to negotiate with the Romans, and bypass the tight guard of the Biryoni troops. Abba Sikra proposed that Rabban Yochanan pretend to be seriously ill, then have the word spread that he was on his death-bed and, finally, that he had died. His students would then pretend to carry his coffin for burial outside the city.”

“With his students Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua acting as pall-bearers, the coffin approached the Biryoni-manned guard-post just within the wall of Yerushalayim. The guards wanted to plunge their swords into the coffin to make sure that they were not being tricked, but the students said, ‘The Romans will say that they’re stabbing their leader!’ The guards then wanted to push the coffin hard, to see if anyone inside would cry out. Again, the students quick-wittedly told them that if they did that, the hated Romans would say, ‘The Jews are pushing the body of their leader!’ The Biryoni guard opened the gate and reluctantly let the small burial party through.”

Meeting with Vespasian

“When the Jewish party reached the Roman camp, Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai emerged from the coffin and greeted the general, ‘Peace be unto you, O King! Peace be unto you, O King!’ To which Vespasian responded, ‘You have incurred the death penalty twice. First, you have called me King, and I am not the King! Second, if I am indeed the King, why have you not come out to me earlier, to how me the proper respect?!’ ”

“Ben Zakkai answered, ‘I knew you had to be a king, because our prophets have foretold that the Temple will fall only into the hands of a king. And the reason I haven’t come out to you until now is that we are plagued by violent extremists within the city, who would not let me come out!’ ”

“Vespasian responded, ‘If there were a snake curled around a barrel of honey, would you not break the barrel (that is, set fire to the walls of the city) in order to get rid of the snake?’ ”

“Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai was not able to respond to this. (At this point, Rabbi Yosef, and some say Rabbi Akiva, comment that sometimes ‘G-d makes the wise foolish;’ for Ben Zakkai should have responded that he had hoped to defeat the militants without having to destroy the walls of the city, and then to make peace with the Romans.)”

“At this point, an Imperial messenger arrived from Rome, and announced, ‘Arise! For the Emperor has died and the Senators have decided to make Vespasian, General of the Legions of Rome, the new Emperor!’ ”

“Vespasian, in the act of rising, had put one boot on, but was unable to get the second one on, nor was he able, at this point, to take the first one off. Rabban Yochanan, witnessing the new Emperor’s discomfiture, told him not to be concerned, because the source of the problem was that he had just received wonderful news, and the natural response of the body, under those circumstances, is to swell. The cure would be to have someone whom Vespasian disliked come before him, which would induce the opposite reaction in the body, to shrink back, so his foot would be restored to its normal size. (It is interesting to note that the presence of the Jewish leader was not having the effect of someone distasteful to the new Emperor; apparently, Vespasian had developed some grudging respect for the Jewish scholar.)”

“Vespasian said to Rabban Yochanan, ‘I will leave now, to return to Rome. But I will dispatch someone to take my place. Before I go, ben Zakkai, you may make a request, which I will grant you.’ ”

“Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai responded with this historic three-fold request:

1) that the Romans guarantee the safety of the scholars of Yavneh, where the new Sanhedrin (Jewish Supreme Court) would be located

2) that the Romans guarantee the survival of the family of Rabban Gamliel, a descendant of the House of David

3) that the Romans allow their physicians to restore the health of Rabbi Tzaddok, who had fasted for forty years to pray for the safety of the City and the Temple (apparently, Rabban Yochanan felt that the presence of Rabbi Tzaddok would be necessary to guarantee the maintenance of the Jewish spirit in the face of the overwhelming catastrophe about to befall the nation)”

“(Here again, Rabbi Yosef, and some say Rabbi Akiva, comment that sometimes ‘G-d makes the wise foolish;’ for Ben Zakkai should have requested the preservation of Jerusalem and the Holy Temple, and that the Jewish People should be given a “second chance” to prove their loyalty to Rome.)”

“But the Talmud, in defense of Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai, explains his thinking; namely, that events had gone too far for such a request to be honored. In order, therefore, to preserve the Torah, for that is the ‘reason for being’ of the Jewish People, it would have to be located somewhere else, ‘temporarily,’ if that was G-d’s will.”

And that was the beginning of the 2,000 year dislocation of the Jewish People and the Torah, from their Land, although there never was a time that the Land was totally empty of its Jewish sons and daughters.

See: https://www.ou.org/holidays/the-three-weeks/the_fateful_meeting/

מקור חז”לי נוסף המביא את אגדה זו הוא החיבור אבות דרבי נתן,[8] הקדום לתלמוד הבבלי, שגם בו מופיע הסיפור על כך שהקנאים אינם מוכנים לפשרות, שרבי יוחנן מתחזה למת ותלמידיו מוציאים אותו מירושלים, שם הוא פוגש את המצביא, מודיע לו על קיסרותו על סמך אותו פסוק שבבבלי, ומבקש ממנו את יבנה, לאחר שהקיסר נותן לו רשות לבקש. בגרסה זו מופיעים כמה הבדלים. אספסיאנוס מתואר באופן חיובי יותר, כמי שלא רוצה להחריב את ירושלים, ומבקש בקשה קטנה כדי להשלים. הנתק בין הקיצוניים לרבי יוחנן גדול יותר, מכיוון שלפי המסופר בבבלי, אחיינו ראש הביריונים מסייע לרבי יוחנן לצאת מירושלים, ולפי המסופר באבות דרבי נתן “רבי יוחנן מדבר לקנאים והם לא שומעים לו והוא יוצא מעצמו”. באבות דרבי נתן אספסיאנוס מלכתחילה מתייחס לרבי יוחנן יפה, מכיוון שמרגליו הודיעו לו שרבי יוחנן תמך בשלום איתו, בעוד שבבבלי המצביא מקבל אותו בכתף קרה, מוכיח אותו ומתווכח איתו. הבדל נוסף הוא שבעוד שבבבלי מיד בתחילת הפגישה רבי יוחנן מודיע לו על קיסרותו, באדר”נ ההודעה היא רק בסוף הפגישה. וגם בקשת רבי יוחנן באדר”נ קצת שונה: “איני מבקש ממך אלא יבנה, שאלך ואשנה בה לתלמידי ואקבע בה תפילה ואעשה בה כל מצוות האמורות בתורה.” בקשה זו, כפי שניתן לראות, אינה מתייחסת כלל לשושלת רבן גמליאל (אם כי רבי יוחנן בעצמו הוא חלק ממנה), ואף אולי אינה מתייחסת ליבנה כאל מרכז קיים, כי חכמיה לא מוזכרים כלל. בנוסף, בבבלי קיימת ביקורת על רבי יוחנן על כך שלא ביקש מהקיסר את ירושלים עצמה, בעוד שבאדר”נ אין כלל ביקורת. גדליה אלון בעקבות מדרש איכה רבה, שם מסופר כי בעת הבקשה היה רבי יוחנן כלוא בגופנא. ובעקבותיוסף בן מתתיהו היו בגופנא וביבנה ריכוזים של אסירים יהודים (מעין מחנות מעצר שלאחר המרד), משער כי בקשתו של רבי יוחנן הייתה להיות מועבר ליבנה, היות ששם היו כלואים תלמידים וחכמים. אפשרות נוספת היא שההעברה ליבנה לא הייתה תוצאה של בקשה, אך הקמת בית הדין שם נבעה פשוט מנוכחותו של רבי יוחנן. לעומת גדליה אלון שסובר שאין אזכור נוסף לכך שביבנה התקיים מרכז רוחני לפני חורבן בית המקדש. שטיינזלץ בפירושו בתלמוד שם, מתאר כי יש מקורות שונים שדווקא מאמתים את כך שיבנה כבר הייתה מרכז רוחני.

5.

The Fast of Gedalia

After the destruction of the First temple, Gedalia was appointed by Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon as governor of Yehud province.  This province was the last refuge for Jews to remain in Judaea.  It’s formation was the only thing that stood in the way of making the destruction of the Second Jewish Commonwealth utterly complete. On hearing of the appointment, the Jews that had taken refuge in surrounding countries returned to Judah. But the zealots were incensed since only total destruction could bring the rupture and necessary disruption to force God’s hand and bring the ultimate redemption.

Ishmael, and the ten men who were with him, murdered Gedaliah, together with most of the Jews who had joined him and many Babylonians whom Nebuchadnezzar had left with Gedaliah (Jeremiah 41:2-3). The remaining Jews feared the vengeance of Nebuchadnezzar (in view of the fact that his chosen ruler, Gedaliah, had been killed by a Jew) and fled to Egypt. Although the dates are not clear from the Bible, this probably happened about four to five years and three months after the destruction of Jerusalem and the First Temple in 586 BCE. (see)

The day that was chosen to assassinate Gedaliah was the Jewish New Year and by tradition a fast of Gedaliah is held on the day after Rosh Hashanah.

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Closing song: “Lo Alecha” by an early 70’s Jewish group called Kol B’Seder made up of Jeff Klepper and Dan Freelander and available on iTunes Jewish Music for the Masses: Jeff Klepper Live In Concert

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